Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson in 2012, after announcing he was leaving the Republican Party to seek the nomination as the Libertarian presidential candidate that year.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson in 2012, after announcing he...

WASHINGTON – Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, best known outside his home state for advocating legal marijuana, could lift the Libertarian Party to new heights as its presidential candidate amid widespread dissatisfaction with the major party candidates.

How high Libertarians rise will depend on whether Republicans and Democrats "come home" to their parties, as they usually do – and, perhaps, whether Johnson makes it to the big stage of candidate debates.

"It's not that my message doesn't resonate with people, it's that people don't hear my message. The microphones are not in front of my face," he said in an interview last week.

Johnson, 63, a GOP governor for two terms, is set to secure the Libertarian Party nomination at the party's convention in Orlando next weekend.

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Delegates, including 71 from Texas, also will vote on Johnson's likely running mate, William Weld, who twice was elected Massachusetts governor as a Republican. Johnson said Weld's decision last week to seek the vice-presidential nomination brings new credibility to the Libertarian ticket, and, he hopes, an infusion of cash.

Given unrest in both parties, Libertarians see an electoral pathway like never before. In a New York Times/CBS poll last week, 52 percent of voters said they want more options, unusual this late in the election cycle.

Johnson is a longtime proponent of the Libertarian core values of limited government and social tolerance, but is not known as an inspiring speaker or a dynamic personality.

He is an entrepreneur who became wealthy in the construction trade, growing a handyman business into multimillion-dollar Big J Enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. He is an accomplished triathlete and a climber with the skill to conquer Mt. Everest.

"I know how to put one foot in front of the other. I know how to climb uphill," he remarked in San Antonio last month.

As New Mexico governor, Johnson became known as "Gov. No" for wielding his veto knife like a machete. He vetoed 739 bills from 1995 to 2003, and left his state with a billion-dollar surplus.

After a halting stab at winning the GOP nomination in 2012, Johnson ran under the Libertarian Party banner. His tally of 1.27 million votes – just under 1 percent – was a record for a Libertarian and the best showing by a third-party candidate since 2000.

Johnson says the Libertarian candidate will make the ballot in every state in November; he was on 48 ballots in 2012. His aim is to at least surpass 5 percent of the vote in November, which would open the door to ballot access and federal matching funds.

He has said he intends to sue the Commission on Presidential Debates over its rule that a candidate must reach 15 percent in polls to take part in debates, a requirement that could relegate him to the margins.

Johnson has worked recently to bring restless supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to his cause. He remarked in the interview that he aligns closely with Sanders on social issues, military intervention and what he referred to as "crony capitalism and all these endless wars."

"Obviously, we get to a 'T' in the road when it comes to the economy," Johnson said.

Besides aiming at Sanders's supporters and Democrats, Johnson hopes to draw Republican voters upset at what many regard as Donald Trump's hostile takeover of their party. Republicans may find some of what Johnson offers appealing.

He calls the $19 trillion national debt "obscene" and promises to balance the federal budget. He considers the IRS "a massive deployment of government force on our lives, our finances and our freedom."

On immigration policy, however, he departs sharply from Republican orthodoxy, arguing that problems result from "artificial quotas, bureaucratic incompetence and the shameful failure of Congress." A bigger fence along the Southwest border, he argues, "will only produce taller ladders and deeper tunnels."

Many Republicans also may be repelled by Johnson's approach to marijuana, which he proposed legalizing in 1999, the highest-ranking elected official in the country at the time to do so.

Before announcing his candidacy, Johnson was president and CEO of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a company seeking business beachheads – like its Hi Brands International subsidiary – in the expanding marijuana industry.

He told an interviewer in March that he uses marijuana occasionally, most recently in the form of cannabis-infused chocolate taffy.

Speaking at a Libertarian candidate debate in San Antonio last month, Johnson said, "I think this country is going to take a quantum leap forward with the legalization of marijuana, recognizing that it's so much safer than everything that is out there, starting with alcohol."

Without doubt, Johnson stands out. In a double-barreled blast at Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, GOP consultant Ed Rogers blogged about him recently: "He's not a nut and he's not manifestly dishonest, and that sets him apart from the field."

Matt Welch, editor-in-chief of the libertarian Reason Magazine, noted that Johnson had placed in double digits in a national poll in March alongside Clinton and Trump.

"Nobody even knew who he was. They just wanted somebody else," Welch said. "The term Libertarian has more widespread acceptance now. You find people casually describing themselves that way."

Who Johnson may appeal to and from which major party candidate could he subtract votes? Such questions will surface with the backdrop of Ralph Nader's third-party success in 2000, arguably costing Democrat Al Gore the White House.

Most pollsters are not asking yet how Johnson might stack up, which is vexing to him.

"If Mickey Mouse were the third name against Hillary and Trump, Mickey would be at 30 percent," he said.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-aligned firm, found in a recent poll that a combination of Johnson (4 percent) and the Green Party's Jill Stein (2 percent) were drawing slightly more from Clinton. The Green Party will select a nominee at its convention in Houston in August.

In a Public Policy poll last week in Arizona - which has voted Republican in nine of the last ten presidential contests - Johnson scored 6 percent and was doing the most damage to Trump.

Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen said that in Democratic-trending New Mexico, where Johnson was governor, he polled at 16 percent last week in a survey for a private client. In Jensen's view, Johnson could have more impact in New Mexico than any other state and potentially draw from Clinton there because of his appeal to younger voters.

In San Antonio last month, Texas Libertarians got a fresh look at their likely standard-bearer at their party's state convention. Beforehand, Johnson met some of his backers at a Lion & Rose Pub. Johnson is familiar with San Antonio; his brother, Scott, is chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Texas School of Medicine in San Antonio.

Dr. Gil Robinson, chair of the Bexar County Libertarian Party, said he thinks Johnson's stance on civil liberties gives him credibility with Sanders' devotees. Like Johnson, Sanders wants to legalize recreational marijuana.

Robinson said his party is drawing some inquiring Republicans.

"When they find out we're serious about ending the drug war, cutting military spending and giving equal rights to gay couples they say 'I'm out of here,'" he said. "For every two Republicans who come through the door, one of them leaves."

Texas Libertarian Party secretary Arthur Thomas IV, of San Antonio, predicted Johnson will contrast favorably with Clinton and Trump, whom he referred to as "a status quo, war-hawk Democrat and an absolutely crazy Republican."

Referring to Trump, Thomas said Republicans have told him that Libertarians are unrealistic. "I say to them now, this is what your party has produced and you're saying that to us?"

Thomas said he is "a little disappointed" at the emergence of Weld. "I don't want us to be seen as a party that just pulls from people that give up on the Republican Party. We are absolutely not Republicans," he said.

Libertarians had high expectations this election for Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, son of Libertarian icon and former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The younger Paul stoked their support a year ago by carrying out a nearly 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor to protest government surveillance and drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

However, Paul's non-interventionist leanings amid a rash of terror strikes in the world, coupled with his prickliness, led to an early exit. He dropped out in February after placing fifth in the Iowa caucuses.

Johnson, too, could come up short in appealing to Republicans favoring a toughened military response in Syria. Likewise, Sanders' devotees committed to the senator's call for a carbon tax to combat climate may reject the Libertarian anti-tax fervor.

Johnson said he believes the government's role with regard to climate change is "setting scientific standards." He noted the request for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month by Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal company.

"You and I are demanding carbon reductions. The coal industry is bankrupt," he said. "That was the free-market at work."